Guantanamo Camps To Improve

Upgraded Villages May Calm Refugees

April 30, 1995|The New York Times

U.S. NAVY BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — In the Cuban refugee camps here, a $35 million construction project is expected to transform living conditions by summer.

That, U.S. military commanders say, is when the likelihood of disturbances will be greatest, because of rising temperatures and a dwindling population of women and children, an exodus that will leave the camps occupied mostly by single men.

Already, chain-link fences have replaced barbed wire around some of the camps, which the troops refer to as villages. Plans call for electricity inside the tents, recreation centers with cable television, a store where the refugees will be able to buy personal items, and permanent indoor latrines that will replace the camps' portable toilets.

Whatever the benefits of this transformation, a reporter's recent visit to Village Echo and Village Denver - two camps that together shelter about 3,500 Cubans - found many refugees maintaining that there was little reason for concern about unrest.

These refugees were among the 7,000 moved from Panama, where riots last December injured more than 200 Cubans and U.S. soldiers. Those disturbances, some Cubans say, were a mistake.

"To get to the United States you have to be calm," said Luis Alcober, 33.

Although the Clinton administration warned last summer that those fleeing Cuba in rafts and boats would not be admitted to the United States, nearly 10,000 have been allowed in, for humanitarian and medical reasons.

And for the past several months, pregnancy also has qualified refugees for entry, since the camps are not regarded as a good environment for newborns, said Col. Jerry Muehlberger, who is in charge of an Air Force hospital at Guantanamo.

Fifty-five of the 275 women at Village Echo are pregnant, and they expect to be moved from the base to the United States before delivery.

The Cubans continue to leave for the United States at the rate of 500 a week, said Air Force Brig. Gen. John Allen, who oversees the camps. He said he expected the refugee population to dwindle to 14,000 by July, from the current level of more than 21,000.

And many of the single men left behind, whose options now are to stay on the base indefinitely or return to Cuba, may soon be offered another alternative. Under a proposal being studied by the Defense Department, they could sign up for U.S. military duty.

These refugees would have to leap some hurdles, like winning security clearances and learning English. But Capt. Jim Grey, an Army spokesman, said some were excited by the prospect.

The gradual emptying of the camps helps keep a lid on tensions, Allen said. He said he was worried about the reaction when departures for the states stop.

"The mood in the camps is related to the expectations of leaving," said Col. Celso Bolet, a base psychiatrist.